Every so often, it’s good to step out of your comfort zone. And for me, children are outside of my comfort zone.

Don’t get me wrong: I love children. I want them to be happy and healthy and successful at whatever they do. But they make me feel awkward. I don’t know what to say or do around them. The more of them there are at one time, the more awkward I become.

I’m not quite sure what caused it. Perhaps it came from being an only child. All of my cousins were my age or older. As a child, I always related better to the adults around me than to the kids my own age and definitely better than to the kids younger than me.

So as you can imagine, when Frieda Cason asked me in March about reading to children at Mack Benn Jr. Elementary School, where she is the reading specialist, for the school’s Olympic Reading Carnival, I was hesitant. However, she offered to let me come at noon — in my profession, the earliest reasonable time to be alert and conscious. She also caught me on a good day and had the good sense to ask me more than a month in advance. It’s a month from now, I thought; almost an eternity in the life of a daily newspaper editor. Anything could happen between now and then. What could possibly go wrong?

My other concern was that my selection of children’s books, since, of course, I have no children, is almost nonexistent. Don’t worry, she assured me: there will be books from which to choose.

The day finally arrived this week, and I was greeted by two delightful young ladies as soon as I walked into the doors of the school. They showed me to the room where there was a lovely spread of snacks and, as Ms. Cason promised, plenty of books.

For the third-grade class to which I was reading first, I chose “Gingerbread Girl Goes Animal Crackers.” This turned out to be a very cute book in which the Gingerbread Girl receives a box of animal crackers for a present, and the herd jumps out of the box and goes on a grand adventure, with the Gingerbread Girl following behind, hoping to save them from the sly fox who loves sweet treats.

Later, for a first-grade class, I chose “The Snatchabook,” a story about a young rabbit who solves the mystery of who’s stealing all of the books.

Despite my nervousness around children, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I managed to get through both readings without so much as a panic attack. I only accidentally misread a few words and didn’t get too many questions I didn’t know how to answer from the kids. I even got to tell them the meaning of “menagerie,” a new word we encountered in “Gingerbread Girl Goes Animal Crackers.”

Yes, it’s good to get out of our comfort zones every now and then. If there’s something that scares you or makes you nervous, try it soon. You might be surprised at how much you enjoy it.